run around
Britishverb
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(often foll by with) to associate habitually (with)
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to behave in a fickle or promiscuous manner
noun
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informal deceitful or evasive treatment of a person (esp in the phrase give or get the run-around )
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printing an arrangement of printed matter in which the column width is narrowed to accommodate an illustration
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Go about hurriedly here and there, as in I have been running around all day so I want to stay home tonight and relax . [Early 1900s]
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Also, run around with . Associate or consort with socially, as in At college she began to run around with a very liberal group . [Late 1800s]
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Be sexually unfaithful, as in She caught him running around just once too often and finally sued for divorce . [Early 1900s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“I’d run around Central Park in my hometown. It was an escape.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 6, 2026
The Italian edged out Norwegian Erlend Blikra and compatriot Matteo Malucelli in the charge to the line at the end of a flat 166km run around Dubai.
From Barron's • Feb. 20, 2026
Concentration camp systems are always an end run around the existing legal system in a country at a given time.
From Slate • Feb. 17, 2026
"Travelling abroad plus the costs involved to run around a bit and get out of breath is a stretch for me," said one former participant on Reddit.
From BBC • Jan. 25, 2026
She began to run around the Nightbeast, throwing the viento wind spell at the monstruo and creating a small cyclone around it.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
